Quilts and cottage pie in Coral Bay, Cyprus

Its that wonderful time of year again where the early morning air has a slight nip in it then the sun bursts through to bring the days allowance of bright, hot sunshine. The Peyia hills are bathed in golden light from sunrise through till around 9am, when the hot sun takes over again.

At night, the air becomes more fresh and light – and the atmosphere almost magical : like Christmas Eve as a child when all the colours seem more true and the world takes on a brighter hue altogether.

The villas in Coral Bay and Peyia are all furnished with an abundance of furry/warm/comforting bed quilts – just in case its too chilly in the early hours. Normally, we find the guests still sleep under cotton sheets while we snuggle down under a decent tog rating and drink hot chocolate before sleep! How we survived UK winter is beyond me: night time here drops to 15 degrees and we’re chilly! I think we are totally acclimatised!

Its a good time of year too to begin cooking old favourites: mince, yorkshire puds and mash or bangers and mash take over from salads and BBQs. Local favourites include Stifado (beef cooked slowly with onions in a vinegar gravy) or Kleftika, (Lamb cooked in the clay oven). Tony loves the local food – though not at the moment as he has been fighting a food poisoning bug for 4 days now!

Sunday lunch returns to our home: well, we are British and there are standards! We stop short of taking a sherry before eating but can be accused of assisting with the local wine sales!

Cyprus enjoys seasons every bit as much as UK. Its sad that very few tourists venture out into the mountains to experience the Cherry Blossom forest, near Paccyamos or the Cedar Forest en route to the Troodos. The colours in the trees and on the hillsides are truly wonderful and breathtaking.

We’re now in Autumn and will enjoy these gentle days through to early January when Winter comes in, seeing temperatures drop to around 18 degrees daily and sunshine hours falling to about 6 per day. Spring is never far behind and seems to slip in, “kiss away the chill”, warm the flowers then leave as if it was never here – letting Summer march in for its, often, 8 month reign.

Speaking of rain, we don’t get much but when we do, its lovely! Please don’t tell the holidaymakers in Coral Bay that I said that though!

Cottage pie tonight, I think…..